Mapping out the future of Breslau will cost Woolwich $235,000, the price for consultants to carry out what’s known as the secondary plan review for what’s expected to be the fastest-growing part o the township.
The plan will lay out appropriate locations for future residential and commercial growth inside the settlement boundaries, as well as places for schools, recreational facilities and the like. Transportation issues, including a proposed GO train station, will also be part of the review, as will growth targets and staging of development, determining how many new homes should be built each year.
The Planning Partnership, a Toronto-based firm, submitted the lower of just two bids submitted in response to the township’s request for proposals.
Most of the expenses will be covered by development charges – fees collected from new construction – with about $35,000 coming from general tax coffers, director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley told councillors meeting Tuesday night.
Questioned by Mayor Todd Cowan about the need for yet another consultant on the books, Kennaley explained the comprehensive review requires time and expertise not available in-house.
Scheduled to run through mid-2013, the work will run in tandem with a review of the township’s Official Plan. It will also have a direct bearing on Thomasfield Homes’ recent application for a large, mixed-use development on land east of the village core.
Owner Tom Krizsan would like to see the secondary plan completed as quickly as possible, telling councillors GO Transit is on a tight schedule for a proposed park-and-ride station that would form part of his development project.
“We began asking for the secondary plan five years ago. We’re very pleased it has arrived,” he said, calling for the township to “complete it in an expeditious manner.”
Thomasfield control about 70 per cent of the undeveloped land within the Breslau settlement area, so the secondary plan will have a large impact on his plans.
The company earlier this year submitted an application for a project that would add 2,300 new residents and 3,330 jobs to the area. Proposed is a combination of residential (single-family, semis, townhouses and apartment buildings), commercial space, offices, retail stores, industrial uses, schools, open space, trails and wetlands extending over more than 335 acres east of the company’s current development, the Hopewell Heights subdivision.
The development would cover two pieces of land, 226 acres immediately east of the subdivision and 109 acres east of Greenhouse Road, the site of much of the proposed industrial land. There would be 865 residential units; 53 acres of employment land; 15 acres set aside at the sound end of the western property, adjacent to the CN rail line, set aside for a GO station; and substantial amounts of protected wetlands and extensive trailways.
Addressing the timing of the work, Coun. Mark Bauman noted the biggest hurdle is the Ontario Municipal Board hearing that’s holding up the new Regional Official Plan.
Neither the secondary plan nor the township’s own Official Plan review can be finalized until the legal issues are resolved at the regional level.
